Democrats without Democracy? Linkage and Socialization into Democratic Governance in Authoritarian Regimes.

Studies on the diffusion of norms generally argue that strong ties between transition countries
and established democracies decisively foster polit
ical transformation. In doing so, they take
for granted that agent attitudes and preferences are (re-)shaped by exposure to norms, but
fail to empirically scrutinize this socializatio
n effect. External democratization by linkage has
so far only been explored at the aggregate level of states and on transition countries already
moving ahead with democracy. This paper aims at filling this lacuna by examining whether
linkage to ‘the West’ transfers democratic rules and practices into Arab authoritarian regimes
hitherto resistant to political liberalization.
It explores whether social
and communication ties
to established democracies can create important domestic stakeholders for democratic
change by transforming state officials into democrats within a non-democratic polity. In order
to directly examine attitudes rather than infer them from behavior, an original scale has been
developed that measures the degree of agreem
ent with democratic norms of governance.
Empirically, the argument is tested on Morocco’s linkage to Europe using data from a unique
survey among state officials. The results challenge the linkage models’ assumption that atti-
tudes are shaped by exposure to norms.